Tag Archives: Q & A

Rain did not dampen Franschhoek Literary Festival

The third annual Franschhoek Literary Festival this past weekend has been a success, despite extremely heavy rain over the Festival weekend.   Restaurants, shops and accommodation establishments all benefited from the Festival.

Featuring a line-up of speakers including Andre Brink, Max du Preez, Zubeida Jaffer, Shaun Johnson, Vikas Swarup (author of ‘Q & A’, which became the Oscar-winning movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’), Justin Cartwright,  Christopher Hope and the biographers Pippa Green (Trevor Manual) and Jeremy Gordin (Jacob Zuma), many sessions were sold out.   Franschhoek chefs Reuben Riffel and Neil Jewell spoke about their books ‘Reuben Cooks’ and ‘Bread & Wine’, respectively.

Good news for Franschhoek is that Andre Brink announced that his next book is to be set in Franschhoek. 

The Autumn Music Weekend by Christopher Duigan, a regular visitor to Franschhoek, which ran alongside the Festival, was as excellent as ever, especially the “I Got Rhythm” concert.  

The play ‘Bafana Republic III’, which had its premiere at the Festival, was less of a success.  The dinner at Bread & Wine was found by Festival goers to not live up to expectations.

“Slumdog Millionaire” comes to Franschhoek

The author of ‘Q & A’, Vikas Swarup, Deputy High Commissioner for India in South Africa, will be one of the speakers at the third Franschhoek Literary Festival, to be held from 15 – 17 May.   His book was the inspiration for the Oscar and other film industry award-winning movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’.

“I wanted to show that knowledge is not the preserve of the educated elite and that even a ‘street-kid’ can possess the wisdom to win a quiz show,” said Swarup in an interview with Transworld about what inspired him to write the book, as quoted on the Franschhoek Literary Festival website.

The book tells the story of an orphan from the backstreets of Mumbai who is falsely accused of cheating in a television game show.    

Swarup’s novel ‘Q&A’  has won various accolades, including the Most Influential Book of the Year 2008 from Kingstone Bookstore, Taiwan’s largest book chain. It was also shortlisted for the Best First Book by the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the Exclusive Books Boeke Prize 2006, as well as the Prix Grand Public at the 2007 Paris Book Fair.